A monitoring system is widely adopted in stores such as convenience stores, in which cameras are set up in each store to capture images of an interior of the store so that persons in the store can be monitored by the images captured by the cameras. If these surveillance cameras or other cameras are used to capture images of display areas such that a display state of goods is monitored based on the captured images, it is possible to detect, based on the display state of the goods, a defect in the goods display, and to make a notification to instruct a store staff member to perform a goods management work (arranging work and replenishing work), thereby removing the defect in the goods display swiftly and avoiding a loss of sales opportunity or reduction in customer satisfaction due to the defect in the goods display.
As a technology relating to such instruction of a goods management work, a technology is conventionally known which determines the necessity of replenishment of goods based on the captured images of a display area and makes a notification instructing a replenishing work (see Patent Document 1). Further, a technology is known which determines the necessity of arranging the goods based on the captured images of a display area and makes a notification instructing an arranging work (see Patent Document 2). Also, a technology is known which generates corrected images by removing obstacles from the captured images of a display area, thereby making it possible to easily grasp the state of arrangement of the goods in the display area (see Patent Document 3).